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Weather: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 94. Heat index values as high as 110. Calm wind becoming east 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon. Thursday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 7pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 75. South wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm in the evening.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Daytona Beach (a few minutes off from Flagler Beach) here.
- Tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
Town of Marineland Commission Meeting, 6 p.m. in the main conference room at the GTMNERR Marineland, 9741 N Oceanshore Boulevard, St. Augustine. See the town’s website here.
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry: Flagler Beach United Methodist Church‘s food pantry is open today from 9:30 a.m. to noon at 1500 S. Daytona Ave, Flagler Beach. The church’s mission is to provide nourishment and support in a welcoming, respectful environment. To find us, please turn at the corner of 15 Street and S. Daytona Ave, pull into the grass parking area and enter the green door.
Story Time with Miss Kim at Flagler Beach Public Library, 11 to 11:45 a.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach. It’s where the wild things are.
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Central Park, from noon to 2 p.m. in Central Park in Town Center, 975 Central Ave. Join Bill Wells, Bob Rupp and other members of the Palm Coast Model Yacht Club, watch them race or join the races with your own model yacht. No dues to join the club, which meets at the pond in Central Park every Thursday.
The Palm Coast Democratic Club holds an “After Dark” Recap Meeting (previous daytime business meeting) at 6 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month to accommodate working Democrats. We will meet at the Flagler Democratic Party Headquarters in City Marketplace, 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite C214, Palm Coast. Hope you will join us. This gathering is open to the public at no charge. No advance arrangements are necessary. Call (386) 283-4883 for best directions or (561)-235-2065 for more information.
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| Source: Flagler County Sheriff's Office. Note: the Sheriff's Office redacts or censors the names of migrants arrested under authority of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The federal agency requires the redactions, according to the Sheriff's Office. |
Notably:The mathematician, philosopher and anti-war activist Bertrand Russell (who won the Nobel Prize for literature, not peace, in 1950, one of the few to win it for non-fiction, maybe because it was set to go to Orwell, but Orwell had the discourtesy of dying that January) was especially horrified by nuclear weapons and the policy of deterrence of the 1960s and 70s. He demonstrated, got jailed once I think, and wrote innumerable pieces on the subject. A couple of lines in one of those pieces is suddenly as relevant as ever: “Our powers of destruction have been enormously increased and are pretty certain to increase much further in the near future. Our methods of conciliation and avoidance of war have not, however, increased by one iota. They are the same as the methods employed in the eighteenth century, and as ineffectual as they were then.
Russell.” Russell never knew AI, which would have frightened him probably as much as nukes. The question he would have asked about those methods of conciliation is: what could AI possibly do about it? Nothing. AI’s ultimate vulnerability and limitations are its creators.
https://youtu.be/u9xYUndzoWg?si=cutiRIUkWljP_HDz
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No previous age has had as great a need as ours has of men who will proclaim how life should be lived, no matter how loudly the holders of power may howl for death. Never before has all mankind been threatened. Never before has
knowledge made such murderous policies possible. If you value your friends, your children, or the splendid achievements of which individuals and nations have been proved capable, it is your duty-or, rather, your privilege-to protest in every way likely to be effective. You are likely to suffer by doing so. But even in suffering, you will be able to preserve a deep happiness not open to the prosperous engineers of disaster.
–From Bertrand Russell’s Fact and Fiction (1961).
Pogo says
Which is all to say, you can’t cheat an honest man. And virtue is its own reward.
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things..”
― Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
EC: File
Laurel says
Didn’t y’all know that climate change is a hoax? Maybe we outta put a data center under that drain. They’ll put us there in a hurry.
Ray W. says
According to a story filed by the Alternet, the Department of Justice is asking a judge to dismiss the criminal charges it filed against a man who is accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Poll “without prejudice”, so that if additional facts surface in the case the DOJ can refile changes. The defense is asking the court to dismiss the charges “with prejudice”, so that future prosecution is forever barred.
In its argument to the trial judge, the DOJ set out in its court filing the fact that more than a week before President Trump began accusing a man of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool a National Park Service engineer had sent out an e-mail in which e-mail it was explained that a Reflecting Pool contractor had over-sprayed “polyurea” on top of an already sprayed expansion joint and that the over-sprayed polyurea had begun to peel away from the base spray.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Every DOJ attorney is an officer of the court before all other things. Under the USSC’s Brady ruling, prosecutors have a constitutional obligation to reveal all exculpatory evidence in their possession as soon as it is received. If a prosecutor violates the Brady violation, he or she may be disbarred from the practice of law.
Once Jeanine Pirro learned of the NPS engineer’s e-mail, she was obligated as an officer of the court to act. She decided to move the court to dismiss the charges. Now the only question for the court to decide is whether its order dismissal will be either with or without prejudice.
As an aside, it is being reported that during President Trump’s overall time in office, $11.6 trillion has been added to the federal debt. From listening to him talk while not under oath, who would have guessed that would have happened?
Laurel says
Me.
Sherry says
ME Too!
Ray W. says
Oil Price US reports that during the week ending August 17th 95 vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz. The week before. 117 crossing vessels. Windward reports that yesterday 16 commercial vessels transited the Strait, the highest count over the last eight days. Three vessels is the lowest crossing count over the past eight days.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
It’s been almost six months since the onset of war. Traffic count through the Strait is down about 90% from the pre-war average. Commercial traffic through the Strait has fluctuated, sometimes wildly, but there has been one constant: of the ships that do get through, Iran has been letting some of the China-affiliated traffic through.
Ray W. says
I have commented about “crack spread” before. Crack spread is the difference between what a refinery pays for crude oil and what buyers of refined gasoline or diesel or kerosine or other combustible products pay to the refinery.
Per a Newser story, because so much Gulf State refinery production has been knocked out during the Iran War and because China has elected to reduce exports of refined combustible products to protect itself from the related reduction in imports of Gulf crude, the crack spread for gasoline and diesel fuel has gone up far more than the rise in the price of crude oil.
At the time of reporting, the price for crude oil was up 39% from pre-war pricing. The price for wholesale gasoline was up 59%. Diesel fuel? Up 69%.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
If it is true that refinery output capacity has been restricted by circumstances indirectly related to the price of crude oil, and I argue that it is true, is there reason to believe that, until refinery damage is repaired, higher gasoline prices may persist even after crude oil prices return to normal?
This is a thought exercise. Does running a car engine at redline reduce its operating lifespan? We all know the answer to that question. What happens when crude oil refineries operate at or above design redline? I recently read an article about American refineries that have been operating at output volumes approaching 100% of design capacity, with one American refinery operating long-term at 105% of design capacity. The reporter explained that ordinary refinery maintenance was being deferred in favor of earning immediate profit. The opportunity for profit exists because so much other worldwide crude oil refinery capacity has been either destroyed or damaged or restrained.
Consider this? What if the Strait of Hormuz had never been closed, but Iran had still responded by destroying or damaging so many Gulf State refineries? Would American gasoline or diesel prices still be so high at the pump?
Ray W. says
According to a story by The Independent, under Minnesota law, the government will shoulder the cost of a vote recount by hand where the margin of vote difference is one-quarter of one percent or less. Florida’s threshold of margin of vote difference has long been one-half of one percent or less, which threshold triggers a machine recount.. If the machine recount returns a margin of vote difference of one-quarter of one percent or less, then the government will shoulder the cost of a hand recount.
Mike Lindell, whose margin of loss in his primary race for Minnesota governor was roughly eleven percent, has been told by state officials that he must come up with $825,000 to pay for a statewide hand recount. He now has a fundraising link to a site named “Lindell Offense Fund.” He estimates that his recount effort will cost upwards of $1 million.
Make of this what you will.
Sherry says
I agree Laurel! Since “Climate Change” is a big ole’ HOAX. . . as declared by “trump god almighty”,this cartoon simply can’t be true! There is absolutely NO need to be a “liberal ass” WOKE person who is “mindful” of wasting precious drinking water with every flush. NO need to be a “liberal ass” WOKE person who recycles/buys electric cars. . . unless of course it’s a Tesla. . . all hail Prince Elon!!!
Pay NO attention NASA’s Proof that “Climate Change” is caused by humans! Pay NO attention to those melting glaciers. . . after all, Fox published some BS about how melting icebergs will not make the oceans rise. Pay NO attention to all those heat records being broken/extraordinary weather events! Lord God trump will protect his faithful followers from ALL harm FOREVER! Right Maga? Right?
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
Ray W. says
I have to admit, this strikes me as really cool.
Researchers working out of Southwest Petroleum University, Sichuan Province, China, focused on the problem of long-term UV light degradation of solar panel efficiencies. They spread zinc oxide (sunscreen) of the glass surface covering the solar cells.
Simply stated, less of the damaging UV light in a certain range of wavelengths reached the working components of the panels, but visible light got through.
Since solar panels do not rely on UV light to produce electricity, lifetime expected solar panel power output is calculated to increase by 4.8% because blocked UV light did not degrade the solar cells as much as non-shielded panels degraded.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Solar power panels, to channel Ford’s CEO, are having their Model T moment. Incremental step by incremental step, solar panel efficiencies are rising and manufacturing costs for solar panels are falling. Solar power is already the cheapest form of producing electricity. The value gap will only get wider as researchers and manufacturers continue to innovate.
Ray W. says
A reporter interviewed a Texas A&M petroleum engineering professor for a story about the nuts and bolts of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Here are a few bullet points from the article:
– America’s crude oil reserves are stored in 60 underground salt caverns. Water was pumped into the 60 salt caves to dissolve salt and thereby expand the salt caves into salt caverns.
– The professor estimates that the safe minimum threshold quantity of stored crude oil in the SPR is 300 million barrels. One reason that this is so is that extraction pipes do not draw crude oil from the bottoms of the 60 caves; water is pumped into the caverns. Water, being heavier than crude oil, settles at the bottom and raises the crude oil to a level that permits extraction of the floating crude oil.
– Any injected water will continue to dissolve the columns and walls of the 60 salt caverns, though the professor told the reporter that there is little likelihood that the walls separating the caverns will soon collapse.
– There is a distinction between reported reserves and usable reserves, meaning that crude oil that exists is not the same as crude oil that can be extracted. Some 70 million barrels of crude oil must remain in the caverns in order for other oil to be extracted from the caverns.
– As the quantity of crude oil in a cavern draws down, the remaining layer of crude oil thins, and sludge that lies atop the layer of water but below the layer of crude oil can enter the extraction pipes and impede or foul the extraction process.
– The Department of Energy rates the maximum withdrawal quantity at 4.4 million barrels per day, but it recognizes that as oil levels fall, extraction rates fall with it.
– Department of Energy guidelines do not permit crude oil drawdowns of crude oil if levels have dropped to 252.4 million barrels.
– The current estimated quantity of crude oil remaining in the 60 salt caves of Texas and Louisiana is 243 million barrels.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
If the facts from the story are accurate, does they establish that our Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been drawn down below DOE minimum recommended levels as a direct consequence of
And, please, before any of the several chronically ignorant commenters who wander among us brays that the Biden administration drew down the SPR levels during an outbreak of war in 2022 started by Russia when gasoline and diesel prices were higher than they are today, please admit before braying that a Republican-controlled legislature declined President Biden’s several requests for funds with which to buy crude oil to refill the SPR. But when President Trump took office, money to refill the SPR was added by Republican legislators into his One Big Beautiful Bill, but the Trump administration then slow-walked the refilling process.
This raises an interesting possible question: Did short-sighted Republican federal legislators deny former President Biden’s requests for funds to refill the SPR, not imagining that President Trump would then start a war with Iran, i.e., did they put party before country? Using James Madison’s language: Were the Republican legislators acting as virtuous partisans or as pestilential partisan members of faction?